after a bit more thought, I've decided to change the maxWidth property to width, to make it even more similar to CSS sizing rules. If you set the width of the text box to a certain value, and the text string width is longer than that width, the text will be clipped

src/shapes/Text.js

@@ -12,14 +12,11 @@ Kinetic.Text = function(config) {
         fontFamily: 'Calibri',
         text: '',
         fontSize: 12,
-        fill: undefined,
-        textStroke: undefined,
-        textStrokeWidth: undefined,
         align: 'left',
         verticalAlign: 'top',
         padding: 0,
         fontStyle: 'normal',
-        maxWidth: undefined
+        width: 'auto'
     });
 
     this.shapeType = "Text";
@@ -29,7 +26,7 @@ Kinetic.Text = function(config) {
         context.font = this.attrs.fontStyle + ' ' + this.attrs.fontSize + 'pt ' + this.attrs.fontFamily;
         context.textBaseline = 'middle';
         var textHeight = this.getTextHeight();
-        var textWidth = this.getMaxWidth() === undefined ? this.getTextWidth() : this.getMaxWidth();
+        var textWidth = this.attrs.width === 'auto' ? this.getTextWidth() : this.attrs.width;
         var p = this.attrs.padding;
         var x = 0;
         var y = 0;
@@ -65,7 +62,7 @@ Kinetic.Text = function(config) {
 
         // clipping region for max width
         context.save();
-        if(this.attrs.maxWidth !== undefined) {
+        if(this.attrs.width !== 'auto') {
             context.beginPath();
             context.rect(x, y, textWidth + p, textHeight + p * 2);
             context.closePath();
@@ -266,17 +263,17 @@ Kinetic.Text.prototype = {
         };
     },
     /**
-     * get max width in pixels
+     * get width in pixels
      */
-    getMaxWidth: function() {
-        return this.attrs.maxWidth;
+    getWidth: function() {
+        return this.attrs.width;
     },
     /**
      * set width
-     * @param {Number} max width
+     * @param {Number} width
      */
-    setMaxWidth: function(maxWidth) {
-        this.attrs.maxWidth = maxWidth;
+    setWidth: function(width) {
+        this.attrs.width = width;
     }
 };
 // extend Shape